Canada Road Safety Week Starts May 13, 2014

Web posted on May 13, 2014

Canada Road Safety Week this year starts May 13 and ends at midnight on May 20. It is an enforcement-driven initiative designed to increase public compliance with safe driving measures and ultimately, to save lives. This week has been strategically chosen, as it includes the first "summer" long weekend.

More people are travelling and traffic collisions are more frequent. Police vehicles will be stationed at key locations and will be highly visible to remind people that safe driving habits will save lives and will reduce injuries on our roadways.

Activities will involve targeted enforcement in the areas of impaired driving, occupant restraint use, and all aspects of aggressive driving for all users; drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. As well, officers will be observing for the usage of hand-held devices that cause distracted driving.

The week is also an education campaign to address the importance of safe driver behaviour. Finally, we want to raise public awareness of the "Road Safety Strategy 2015", an initiative that will continue for the next three years in the hopes of making Canada's roads the safest in the world by 2015.

Anyone can become a victim of unsafe driving - whether by direct involvement or when a loved one is affected. Police agencies across the country are collaborating on this project because they have seen this kind of devastation, and because we know that the involvement of the driving public is essential to achieve safer streets and highways.

Here in Guelph there have been too many deaths and serious injuries over the last number of years related to vehicle collisions. These collisions may be computed into numbers, but they represent moms, dads, sisters, brothers, co-workers, and neighbours. The Guelph Police Service believes this is unacceptable and that is why, in support of Canada Road Safety Week, we are participating in this initiative.

Canada Road Safety Week is sponsored by Transport Canada and endorsed by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. More information about Canada's Road Safety Strategy 2015 is available at www.ccmta.ca.